Technology trends, insights and news

May 15, 2008

Jack Fairweather of Islam's Advance (Newsweek/WaPo) writes a fascinating post on the role of Facebook in organizing recent protests in Egypt. He notes that the social network has engaged young moderates and liberals in the type of political activity previously reserved for Islamists. The piece also suggests that the impact of the social network might be overblown thus far. Of course, that could be true, but, then again, could you imagine reading an article like this two or three years ago?

A excerpt:

When most people log onto Facebook, the thought of fermenting revolution is pretty far from their minds. But in the Middle East, and most recently in Egypt, Facebook has become an important platform for dissent in countries that routinely clampdown on liberal activists, and where the mosque has traditionally been the only outlet for venting political frustration.

Last month saw the arrest of Esra Abdel Fattah, 27, after she formed a group on Facebook calling for protests against the high price of food and other commodities in Egypt. Strike action was already planned by factory workers in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla al-Kobra, and the Facebook group, which attracted 64,000 members, tapped into a national mood of unrest. During Fattah’s incarceration, police clashed with protestors in Mahalla, killing three; some 500 people were detained.

By the time Egyptian police freed her two weeks ago, Fattah, an active online activist and member of the liberal al-Ghad political party, had become something of a cyber folk hero, feted by Middle Eastern bloggers and tech-minded students.

At a meeting on April 11 of the LDP General Council's committee on countermeasures against illegal and harmful information, many members questioned the advisability of allowing the government to get involved in vetting information on the Internet.

"People have different views about what is and isn't harmful," one committee member said.

Unlike judgments on explicitly illegal information, such as instigating murder or the use of narcotics or stimulants, distinguishing between "wholesome" and "harmful" information can be difficult.

April 15, 2008

The NYT blog, The Lede, has an interesting bit on the the incoming Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev. Apparently, not only has he used the Internet, he understands it (!) and can speak intelligently to current online trends. The bar is indeed low.

Most relevant to this space is the fact that the Times notes that Russia maintains a fairly minimalistic regulatory regime over the Internet...for now...

Unlike in China, the Internet in Russia is not censored and is full of online newspapers, magazines and videos that criticize the government. By contrast, the Kremlin controls television, and although independent newspapers and radio stations exist, they have relatively small audiences.

Under President Vladimir V. Putin, the Kremlin has considered measures that would tighten control over the Internet. It is currently drafting a law that would force websites to register with the government. A few bloggers have been prosecuted for remarks that were deemed offensive or extremist. Russian Internet entrepreneurs are hoping that Mr. Medvedev will push back against these efforts.

February 25, 2008

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told the country's 70 Internet service providers Friday that the popular website would be blocked until further notice, the Associated Press reports.

The authority did not specify what the offensive material was, but a PTA official said the ban concerned a movie trailer for an upcoming film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who has said he plans to release an anti-Koran movie portraying the religion as fascist and prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.

February 12, 2008

People who illegally download films and music will be cut off from the internet under new legislative proposals to be unveiled next week.

Internet service providers (ISPs) will be legally required to take action against users who access pirated material, The Times has learnt....

...Ministers will make an explicit commitment to legislate with the launch next week of a Green Paper on the creative industries. A draft copy, obtained by The Times, states: “We will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action on illegal file-sharing.” A consultation paper setting out the options is promised within months.

But, juicily, she also says: "There are strong rumors that a concerted effort is underway in the EU to mandate ISP filtering for (at the least) copyright issues and indecent material."

Already, France has taken a lead in developing legislation that would mandate ISP-level filtering for copyrighted material on P2P networks. And, the international version of the RIAA (IFPI), hopes that the French effort is extended to other countries. However, a European Parliament amendment that would create filtering rules failed in January.

France is one thing. (So is Australia). Copyright rules are another. Copyright AND "indecency" mandates across the EU are more than exponentially quite another and would blast open a Pandora's Box. Boom.

February 04, 2008

For the vast majority of Internet users, censorship still does not appear to be much of a factor. The most popular Web applications here are games and messaging services, and the most-visited Internet sites focus on everyday subjects like entertainment news and sports. Many, in fact, seem only vaguely aware that the Chinese Internet universe is carefully pruned, and even among those who know, a majority hardly seems to care.

But growing numbers of others are becoming increasingly resentful of restrictions on a wide range of Web sites, including Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, MySpace (sometimes), Blogspot and many other sites that the public sees as sources of harmless diversion or information.

The mounting resentment has inspired a wave of increasingly determined social resistance of a kind that is uncommon in China.

Censorship is another critical issue that YouTube must solve. The
Korean government enforces relatively strict guidelines for sexual,
violent, or politically controversial contents on Web sites. So major
local portals such as Naver and Daum employ several hundreds of
monitors in Korea and in China who check all video and text content and
filter inappropriate material 24 hours a day.
YouTube's Arsiwala said Wednesday that the firm will do its best to
comply with the Korean regulations. But there certainly will be
loopholes because of the sheer amount of the videos uploaded onto the
site ― Arsiwala says that YouTube sees about 10 hours of videos
uploaded every minute.

January 10, 2008

CNET's Anne Broache went to the site of Tuesday's big primary earlier this week to file the shocking news that the average voter in New Hampshire doesn't give a rat's rear-end about net neutrality and other geek policy issues fawned over on this page. And, we've said as much here for as long as we've been pumping out posts. At the height of the NN debate, we noted how few average Internet users cared about it. And, we have suggested that it won't be until 2012 for an issue like privacy to become presidential debate-worthy.

But, hold on a minute people. Don't get your geek dawbers down. There is a tech policy issue being debated at every turn of this campaign. You may just be missing the forrest for the trees. The issue is free trade and, if you haven't noticed, the fear-driven creep of protectionism is spreading as the election year rhetoric heats up.

Free trade has a huge impact on innovation, the success of both big and small companies that touch technology and consumers of everything from big TVs to little pacemakers. This is why the Consumer Electronics Association is taking on the issue as a priority and made free trade a front and center focus at this week's massive CES event.

What worried me, though, were the good number of people who stopped to ask who could possible be against free trade. And, they were surprised to learn that something they took for granted as a motherhood and apple pie issue could be threatened.

As CEA's president Gary Shapiro noted in his CES keynote, there are plenty of people using free trade as a wedge issue for their own interests...

He cited a CEA survey showing that 69 percent of Americans "agree that free trade is important." But that consensus, Shapiro added, is threatened. "Free trade. Given the [political] climate today, it is not a given."

As the enemy, Shapiro identified "protectionists and isolationists," as well as "pundits, politicians and TV demagogues holding out protectionism as a solution to our economic problems."

He said, "I believe that our digital destiny is as inevitable as the discovery of America." But he added, "Never before have I been as concerned that some in our country might restrict our leadership toward that digital destiny." Shapiro said that a trend toward isolationism, which was common in the U.S. before World War II, is "dangerous and disturbing."

Against the forces of economic retrenchment, Shapiro said that free trade, especially in technology, represents America's best hope. "Technology has become the shining star of the new economy," said Shapiro. "We believe that our technologies improve the world." (EETimes)

The Hollywood studios, consumer electronics makers and the music industry have called a temporary truce and are teaming to convince lawmakers of the importance of free trade.

The heads of the groups' major trade organizations told lawmakers in a letter released Monday that it was in the country's best interest to approve a number of trade agreements pushed by the Bush administration.

Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Assn., told reporters "it was the first time in my career" that he had agreed to sign on with "two organizations I have opposed for years" -- the MPAA and the RIAA.

"While we disagree strongly on the specifics of intellectual property, we agree on this point," he told reporters during a telephone news conference from the CEA's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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